What can Brown do for you?
Holy shit.
Mind, Blown.
What the hell is happening? Whatever the adjustments were for the Steelers, they were all wrong. And the Browns’ were all right.
[sub]:::Secretly, at halftime, the SeaHawks switched places with the Browns. Let’s watch the second half:::[/sub]
Fake punt was ballsy. I love that shit.
We’re in phase 2 of the despair, hope, soul crush cycle.
Did the special teams coach say fair catch no matter what? Wtf? That’s like the 4th awful fair catch.
My heart…
What can you say about that game? The Steelers were awesome in the first half, and the Browns showed why they picked Hoyer in the second. The Browns showed a lot of courage coming all the way back, but the Steelers’ defense came through in the end, and then the offense did just enough. Division games. Big brother vs. little brother. Anything can, and does, happen.
The Browns have a lot of potential. I think I was wrong in underestimating them. I wonder how many teams they’ll surprise this year. Of course, that’s only if they play like they did in the second half. Their first half performance was as atrocious as their second was impressive.
Note that I didn’t say much about the Steelers. That’s because I don’t know what to say. I’ll have to think about it for a while.
Hmm… that could have easily been in the L column. It’s always great when your root-for team wins, but man, sometimes ya gotta wish they weren’t such cardiac events.
Broncs and Colts coming on, see y’all.
Watching the Steelers is always a cardiac event.
What did you think of the Ratbirds and Bungles?
Looks like Cincy is the competition for you this year in that division. I think Steelers should make the playoffs.
I didn’t express any sort of confidence in this thread, just surprise. Something like that always comes. A few months ago in some sort of interview, an ex Ravens coach, a coordinator or something, said about the Browns something like “They’ll play you tough, even beat you up, but hang in there, and they’ll find a way to lose”, and of course he was right.
Of course I don’t know how something like that survives through entire roster flips, entire coaching staffs, new front offices, and even new ownership.
I thought Pettine might’ve made a half time speech for the ages or something, because they went from playing like a team that was 2-13 going into the last game of the year and not giving a shit to one who played like they were really in it. But he says he didn’t do anything special, the team’s vets stepped in and rallied the team. I bet he meant Whitney and Dansby - those guys came from the outside from winning organizations, and they won’t take that shit.
Maybe the players will take over and it’ll be like 2007 again, where there was essentially a player revolt in half time of game 1 (against the Steelers no less), and the OC and players actively fought and battled the rest of the coaching staff to have an exciting season. Of course that involved a half-time QB swap too, so who knows. The next week was the 58-48 shootout at the Bengals.
I think a win here would’ve done amazing things with the rest of the season. Came out limp, then finished remarkably strong to win - would’ve validated whatever changes they made entirely. Now I wonder - is the attitude “we tried our best and lost anyway, fuck it” or will it be “we found our groove, we couldn’t quite dig ourselves out of that hole, but we’re going to be firing on all cylinders next time”? With a win, it would’ve been a lot better for morale, we’ll have to see. Maybe just knowing that they have that in them will inspire them enough.
Hopefully something good will come of this, and we’ll see you again in a few weeks, at home.
I was pleased to see that Antonio Brown kept busy during the off season with practice at his local karate dojo.
For those who haven’t seen it yet:
Not that I thought it was a good play - it was an idiotic play (and one he’ll likely pay a hefty fine for), but that video above is flippin’ awesome.
Antonio Bryant lied about talking to Lanning and laughing up the ninja kick with him. Classy.
The rumors are getting stronger that players suspended for pot are retroactively going to go free if they would’ve passed under the new standards. While I’ll be happy to have Gordon back obviously, it’s going to bother me all year that it seems pretty obvious that the brightest star on the Browns team would’ve made a difference in a game that came down to a last second field goal.
Since there are so many stories about the dumbfucks in the AFC North, I thought I’d add a good one to the mix.
The Bengals signed Devon Still first to their practice squad , then to their active roster and are selling his jerseys for the benefit of Cincinnati Children’s hospital.
Still’s 4 year old daughter has been diagnosed with cancer and is currently receiving treatment. As Still says:
"“They could have just washed their hands completely of it, say we don’t care what’s going on in his personal life, we just want people who can care 100 percent on football, that’s what they pay us to do. But they thought about my personal issues and allowed me to come back on the practice squad so I still have insurance. They said if I keep working on my physical with my injury and mentally prepared myself to focus on football, then they can move me back up to the roster, so I am not all the way out of the loop.”
Kudos to the Bengals.
I didn’t know that it was even an issue one way or the other. And it could be that Lanning lied about it, too. I don’t know, and I really don’t care.
If he had played the game might have ended in a Steelers blowout, too. It doesn’t work that way, you can’t simply say that having Josh Gordon on the field would have resulted in a win. Let’s say that he was playing. Hoyer throws more and maybe he throws a few interceptions and the running game doesn’t grind the Steelers’ defense into powder. It’s just as likely.
Indeed. Good on them.
I’m still at a loss to explain Sunday’s second half performance, so I’ll simply ignore it and move on to tonight’s game with the Ratbirds.
This is the kind of game where one team could be the best in the league and the other could be the worst yet the outcome would still be in doubt. Are there any two teams (and fanbases) that hate each other more than these two?
The game tonight is at Stabby Statue Stadium, home of the icon of Ray Lewis perpetually in mid-seizure. Last year’s game there was the infamous Thanksgiving game which resulted in a multi-page thread full of chuckleheads that believed that mike Tomlin stepped onto the field on purpose, an accusation that still makes no sense. It was also the end for Emmanuel Sanders when he dropped the 2-point conversion attempt that he should have caught. The Steelers didn’t re-sign him, letting him go to Denver, where he has inexplicably remembered how to catch.
But that’s last year. This year the Ratbirds looked really bad against the Bengals, with Joe Flacco justifying his monster contract by stinking up the joint. They also have no running game thanks to the other Ray gooning his woman. Their corners are battered and bruised, and the backups look like they are worse than Goddamn Ike Taylor, a dubious distinction.
On the other hand, the Steelers look great on offense, not quite as great on defense. Weird, I know, but it is what it is. Even so, the defense should be able to stop the Ratbirds somewhat less-than-overwhelming offense while Ben and company pick their defense apart.
This game is always unpredictable. The Rats are favored by 2.5, which makes sense as these games are almost always decided by a field goal. I think the Steelers will win, but of course I would. If the Good Steelers show up they should win, if the Bad Steelers show up they will lose. It’s as simple as that. 24-21 Steelers.
Will be interesting to see both sides in a no huddle offense all game long. You see, known felons can’t associate together.
